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Aaannnndddd, she’s back!

So I did mention something about health and/or diet food in my last post, and while this recipe is the latter, it is most certainly not to be confused with the former. I posted about my rainbow cake here, and it got a lot of traffic on over to my livejournal, and everyone wanted the “recipe.” The cool thing is that if you’re making something so distractingly colourful, people will think it’s delicious no matter what.

This presents me with the option to use an old Weight Watchers trick—the one-point cupcake. Except I’m making a cake and I created my own frosting. Kinda. I’ve seen it done before, but I swear I made it up first!

This cake is suitable for many occasions:

  • A child’s birthday
  • Your mom’s birthday
  • Coming out to your conservative parents
    • If you’re a lesbian, they’ll be thrilled that you won’t be forgoing your feminine kitchen duties.
    • If you’re the kind of gay dude who makes cakes for your parents, they were probably on to you anyway.
  • Coming out to your conservative parents on your mother’s birthday
  • Your friend’s jam band CD release party

. . . so I’m sure you’ll find a use for this recipe soon.

And of course, you can use any white cake recipe you’d like. This is just how I make it because I have delusions of wearing size 2 someday.

Oh yes, and do me a favour: DOUBLE THE RECIPE AS PHOTOGRAPHED HERE!! The recipe at the bottom is accurate, but this made for a really REALLY small cake, and there was not nearly enough frosting, especially considering its lightness.

Okay, on with the ingredients.

how to: rainbow cake!

That’s all. Notice the lack of fat in here? Mmmmmm . . . chemicals. Though I don’t need to defend my method thanks to the double-dub (WW) aspect, even when I make a “real” cake I usually use box mix because let’s face it: Betty’s been doing it way longer than I have, and has pretty much perfected the art.

Pour a can of soda (12 oz) 2-12 oz cans of soda into the cake mix two boxes of cake mix. No eggs, no oil, no water, no sweat.

how to: rainbow cake!

The action shots weren’t too thrilling. Now we measure it.

how to: rainbow cake!

I’m going to round to 30 oz 60 oz because I have six colours and isn’t that just too convenient? It worked out to 3/4 c 1.5 c per colour, measurementwise. So I divvied that up and used my gel colours.

how to: rainbow cake!

(the gel colours, while not as good as pigment dye, are much bolder than the very liquidy food colouring you probably grew up with)

how to: rainbow cake!

The first colour you drop into the pan, use about 2/3 of the mix for that colour. Otherwise, the top (last) colour will really dominate. I used a heaping 1/4 c 1 cup of each colour.

how to: rainbow cake!

Drop the colours, one by one, into the middle of the pan, in neat concentric-ish gobs. Remember the cake is going to be sliced in the side there, so mixing it around on top isn’t going to make your slices any more psychedelic (trust me, I did the three-dimensional thinking for you already).

When you’re three colours in, start doing the reverse with the other pan. Since I’m going in rainbow order: red, orange, yellow, green, blue, purple, I got from red to yellow in the first pan, then purple, blue, green in the second. This is so that your two pans are equal if your measurements aren’t exact (and they’re not likely to be).

how to: rainbow cake!

Now finish up.

how to: rainbow cake!

Follow the box’s baking instructions and do your dishes.

how to: rainbow cake!

Such lovely dishes!

Now for the frosting: 1 box 2 boxes of fat free sugar free pudding mix, and 8 oz 16 oz (two of the 8 oz tubs pictured) of fat-free whipped topping. Or sugar-free. Or light. Or regular. They’re all pretty much the same. But that’s it.

how to: rainbow cake!

Holy shit, the cake’s done! Toothpick clean and everything! Get that shit out of the oven!!!

how to: rainbow cake!

The purple top kind of made a little turkey silhouette.

how to: rainbow cake!

The frosting will be a little tough to spread, so treat it like a buttercream (I guess, I’ve never frosted a cake with buttercream). Putting gobs all over, then smoothing in worked well for me.

how to: rainbow cake!

And look at that thing! It’s so pretty-lookin.

how to: rainbow cake!

Here’s what this particular cake looked like. See how it’s tiny and too rounded and it kind of isn’t all that great? That’s because I didn’t double the recipe. It’s a mistake I’ll only make once.

how to: rainbow cake!

Here’s what that really should look like: same process, twice the batter.

DSC_0598

Mmmmm.

Sunny Day Rainbow Cake

2 boxes white cake mix
24 oz of clear diet soda (2 cans, ginger ale and sprite work well)
gel food colouring
16 oz whipped topping
2 oz instant fat-free sugar-free pudding mix (2 smallish boxes)

The Dieting
Mix the cake mix with the soda according to regular instructions on box. It will be lumpy afterward. Again, you can use any white cake recipe you want, this is just how I do it.

The Rainbowing
Measure the total volume (by my estimate, 64 oz), then divide by 6 and measure into separate bowls. There are 8 oz in a cup, so 64/6 = 10 to 11 oz, or 1 cup + 2 tbsp.

Stir colour into each bowl with its own spoon. For the first colour into the pan, measure out 2/3 to 3/4 of your mix (in this case about 1 c) as close to the middle as you can. Drop in your first three colours, then work on the other pan with the last three colours. So if you’re doing rainbow order, the first pan should have red, then orange, then yellow, and now the purple, blue and green go into the second pan. As a recap, this is so both layers are roughly the same size.

Bake the cake for however long the box tells you to bake it. Check it when the box says to, but usually it’ll need an extra 5 or 10 minutes or maybe more because of the density of the soda method. Just keep baking, checking back every 5 minutes or so until a toothpick to the center comes out clean. Let cool completely before moving to a wire rack.

The Frostinging
Meanwhile, make your frosting. Just mix the pudding mix in with the whipped topping for a few minutes. Dye if you’re into that.

Frost your fat-free cake with your fat-free whipped frosting. Eat.

Edit 1 (one week later)


No children were harmed in the making nor consumption of this cake.

People seemed to miss the point that I am a 25-year-old woman on a diet with no kids. Since kids don’t really need fat-free anything, there’s no need to use the soda recipe if you don’t like the idea, and if you don’t like dye, don’t make this for dinner for them every night for a month. Okay, folks, thanks for the allowance to disclaim.

Edit 2 (two weeks later)


A note to Weight Watchers (the people on the diet, not the company):
WW has long advertised 1/12 of a cake mix with diet soda to be a “one point cupcake.” I have no idea why they insist this is the case when according to the “as packaged” nutrition information, this much cupcake has 170 calories, 3g fat and no fiber . . . by my calculation, that’s 4 points. That said, 1/12 of this recipe, (2 box mixes + 16 oz whipped topping + 2 oz or so pudding mix) works out to 10 points a slice. Not bad considering that a comparable cake would be 14 points.

Edit 3 (two months later)


FAQ
Here are questions I get over and over again about this cake. I just don’t want to answer any more emails about it. These questions apply to any cake, so please don’t blame your epic fail on me.

Omg my cake burnt!
Next time don’t bake it for as long.

My cake stuck to the pan!
Grease your pan better next time.

My cake burnt/stuck to the pan/was underdone/crumbled. Is this because of the food colouring I used?
No, the food colouring has nothing to do with the failure of your cake. You baked it too long/didn’t grease enough/didn’t bake long enough/moved it before it was cool.

I’m making this for my kids, can I use non-diet soda for this cake?
I don’t know why you would, you certainly wouldn’t be saving much in the way of calories, and I don’t really think your kids need more sugar. Just make a regular cake and then put food colouring in it, it will look the same, promise.

If I don’t make it with soda, will the colours run?
No. In fact, like I keep saying, please just use whatever the hell cake recipe you like. Please. The rainbow part has nothing to do with Weight Watchers.

The frosting, it’s so thick!
Yes, buy a tub of Duncan Hines frosting as a backup plan.

The cake, it fell apart!
Let it cool before you move it, and more importantly, don’t jostle the thing about.

I don’t like the cake this made, blech!
You probably aren’t on a diet, so I don’t know why you bothered to make diet cake.

I don’t get it, you make two cakes and then you put them on top of each other?!
Yes, it’s called a layer cake, and pretty much any cake you buy at a grocery store is constructed in the same manner.

But I don’t *like* food colouring.
Well, you’re wasting your time reading this, aren’t you?

I totally saw this on Something Awful’s Goons with Spoons Rainbow Cake thread, way to steal the idea, asshole.
Me too, fellow goon, me too. And in fact, I posted my original rainbow cake there. If you have no idea what I’m talking about and would like to see about a hojillion rainbow cakes, and a rainbow cheesecake, please check out the thread that put this on my radar.

DSC_0603

9/26/2014
closing comments because way more spam bots are hanging around than humans, and after at least 2000 actual people comments, there probably isn’t much left to say. however, my email address remains active, so if you wanna be social, send it that way.

thanks, internet, this was fun.

  1. sami Said,

    coolest cake ever awesome!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!sweet

  2. The Not So Skinny Kitchen – CEiMB: Stuffed Turkey Burgers Said,

    […] vanilla/vanilla, but this year I wanted something a little different: this year I requested a rainbow cake. I have to say, Randy did a fabulous job. The inside of the cake was pink, orange, green, purple, […]

  3. Kharisma Said,

    Wow, this looks amazing! The photos are gorgeous and the article is well written and funny. I’m going to try this regardless of my shitty culinary skills.

  4. Pam Said,

    I loved this cake!!! I have just started baking cakes and decorating them…my family are my quinea pigs!!!..As for the food coloring, think about it..if it was really that bad, would it be allowed to be sold with out warnings????? Seriously, my mother has used food coloring in cakes since she was a child and she is now 79!!!! Healtly as can be…I thank the creater of this site..well done…

  5. A Very Happy Birthday Cake « brunch and the city Said,

    […] got the idea from this post on Omnomicon, which details how to create the crazy swirly colors.  Instead of using the recipe in that post […]

  6. Zaireeka Listening Party | Vegan Soiree Said,

    […] the raddest rainbow cake recipe ever and would be perfect for the party.  Check out the blog post Rainbow Cake to find out how to make it. The only change I would make would be to decorate the cake with lots of […]

  7. Amanda W Said,

    I made the cake like normal and bought my own icing and it turned out absolutely fantastic!!! Everyone at my office loved it! Thanks so much for this amazing recipe 🙂

  8. Cece Said,

    I know I’m incredibly late to the game, here, but I just wanted to let you know that I made cupcakes using this recipe today, and they were fantastic. Granted, I didn’t make any frosting for them, and I used regular Sprite instead of Sprite Zero, but I doubt it really makes as much of a difference as some of the haters seem to feel it does. Muchos gracias for sharing this fun, fantabulous idea!

  9. Anonymous Said,

    This is amazing. I love making cakes, especially for the familly, for every class party and for my teachers on special holidays! I never thought i would find something so helpful amidst the usual junk i find online!

  10. Sarah Said,

    What size of pan do you use? Maybe I’m missing it, it is after midnight…. but I don’t see it.

    My cake mix says to use two 9 inch round pans for one mix…… but it looks like you used to mixes and two 9 inch pans? Help?

  11. Emily Said,

    I LOVE THIS CAKE! I am making this for my friends 14th birthday this Sunday… she is gonna LOVE it! I know she will =) thanks!

  12. Reminder to Me: BAKE the Rainbow Cake! « Edge, Etcetera Said,

    […] Rainbow Cake Recipe […]

  13. Becca Said,

    Okay, will people seriously stop hating on artificial coloring? I’m sure that everyone that said something has never had McDonalds, only eats organic foods (and if you have that kind of money, more power to you), cringes at the words ‘fried’, ‘hormones’, anything starting with ‘Mc’ and the word ‘whopper’, right? No? Seriously, find another cause to keep people from dying. Plane crashes kill more people per year than artificial colors… Aren’t there far more important things in life?

    Also, I love the idea for this cake. The colors are so bright, and I LOVE COLORS!!! I wanna make it into cupcakes in cones.

  14. gökkuÅŸağı için doÄŸuverdim. « aslisubasi Said,

    […]  bu arada fikir orjinal deÄŸildir, 2 sene önce bu sitede görmüş ve dibim düşmüştü http://www.omnomicon.com/rainbowcake . o zaman çok orjinal sandığım bu fikir aslında pek çok farklı ÅŸekilde uygulanan da […]

  15. To Bake or Not to Bake? « Not Your Average Jane Said,

    […] in the mean time if you want to make the Rainbow Cake…here’s the link Omnomicon; and you can find the Lemon Raspberry Muffin recipe and other healthy things at […]

  16. rainbow riches Said,

    I was never expecting this a rainbow cakes? glamorous one…very interesting to this how does it taste…haha wish i can try it. Yummy

  17. Suzann Said,

    I have made this cake a million times since you posted it! It’s fabulous and I <3 it! Thank you soooo much!

  18. Rainbow Cake | bohaute Said,

    […] out of seeing the inside when it comes time to ‘cut the cake’.  These pics I used from Omnomicon because they […]

  19. Volleyball L♥VER Said,

    this is SOOO cool! It looks like so idk colorful!!!! 😀

  20. colette peters Said,

    planning to do a 3-d cake of my hubby’s vw bus for his bday, I do believe this cake has to go inside…

  21. Where art thou? Said,

    […] Rainbow cake recipe found here. […]

  22. Ally Said,

    I made this today, and it is so awesome! Loved it!

  23. The Magic of Birthdays! « ~~ ChevGirl ~~ Said,

    […] made a rainbow cake for M’s birthday cake. It was fun to make! I used five colours (I used plain old food […]

  24. valerie Said,

    Dude. I think I’m going to have to make this for my father-in-law who just informed me that his cancer is in remission. You know, “after the storm”? 🙂
    I’ll probably just stick to the usual recipe but thanks so much for the ideas about color-layering! Can’t wait to try (and I am SO not a baker)!

  25. kaitlyn Said,

    my mom is making it on my 8TH B-DAY party

  26. Baker's Wife Said,

    Hey! Just a quick note! If you find this cake is burning or not cooking enough, use the baker’s rule “BAKE TO TIME NOT TEMPERATURE”.

    FOR BURNING: if your box instructions told you 350F for 25 minutes, I’d make that more like 325-30F for 25 minutes

    FOR UNDERDONE: put back in oven and increase oven temp by 10-ish and leave for no more than 5 minutes – longer than that and you risk burning the bottom too much

  27. Sobre o bolo colorido « minha terapia Said,

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  28. Durr Hurr Pretty Colors « Gettin' Hip with the Zipp Said,

    […] http://www.omnomicon.com/rainbowcake […]

  29. garcon sculpteur Said,

    Woah what a Chef D’oeuvre!
    Actually I was surprised how “easy” to do it was – thanks to your recipe! 😛 Mine didn’t looked as nice but tasted yummy! Keep up the good work!

  30. Jus Nikki Said,

    Awesome cake! I definitely will be trying this very soon for the kiddies can’t wait to add my on twist to it.

  31. Rainbow cake! « Wait, What!? Said,

    […] was really easy to make thanks to Omnomicon. I didn’t use soda though, I used eggs, water and vegetable oil like a normal […]

  32. kmfantley Said,

    I see you referenced a rainbow cheesecake. When I clicked the link, it said it couldn’t pull it up. Could you please send me the recipe for that cake. I want to make it for my birthday!

    I made the rainbow cake (only with 4 colors cause I ran out of gel) for my nieces 8th birthday. She loved it. I am not making another one (with only 3 colors, cause that is what my child wants) for my son’s 6th birthday. I love this idea.

  33. kmfantley Said,

    Oops, that was suppose to be now instead of not.

  34. My Cake Wreck « Girl Meets Bulgaria Said,

    […] find any recipe or instructions for the bundt cake, but I did find a rainbow layer cake (thanks Omnomicon) and decided I had to make […]

  35. kaity Said,

    I’m so glad i found this, I recently found out i am diabetic, and have been looking for simple cake/cupcake recipes to use. i have been making rainbow cakes for my gay best friend’s birthday the past three years. i was afraid i’d never get to eat my awesome baked creations again. thanks a bunch!!!

  36. Awesome Said,

    @ Anonymous-coloured dough = chemicals: FUCK YOU! Everything contains chemicals ffs AIR is a combination of a huge variety of chemicals! WATER is a CHEMICAL! I hate you!

  37. McKenzie Said,

    I am 13, and I just made this cake by myself. I love this recipe! It’s so simple and my family loved the cake it was delish and really pretty! Thanks(:

  38. Rainbow Cake! — Design Scouting Said,

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  39. cake adventures « excerpts from the novel Said,

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  40. m Said,

    I love this cake it is beautiful! I would love to do it for my daughters second birthday cake BUT my lovely husband is panicking over the colours….spoil sport but maybe I will make a smaller version and eat it on my own lol 😉 but really beautiful photography. A friend of mine got me onto your blog and I am now hooked!

  41. JC Said,

    Diet soda and food coloring are not nuclear waste. People are so paranoid about foods these days that they don’t even care if science validates their chicken-little mentality. Everything has “chemicals.” Some are natural, some are synthetic. Natural does not equal healthy. There are many naturally occurring substances that are toxic and can kill or harm you. Synthetic does not mean unhealthy or toxic. There are numerous synthetic substances that have no observable detriment to the human body.
    Pull your brain out of your asshole and start using it.

  42. The Rainbow Cake | Rocketboom Said,

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  43. Anonymous Said,

    Diet Soda = Sucralose = Cancer Growth.
    Sweet n’ Low = Mercury.
    Aspartame + Above 90 Degrees Fahrenheit = Formaldehyde.

    Moral: Artificial Sweeteners = Not Too Happy Life/ Death.

  44. strawberry cupcakes « om nom nom Said,

    […] beat 3 more minutes add vanilla & ricemilk and beat 5-7 min till fluffy derived this one from this rainbow cake and this strawberry cake with VCTOTW buttercream […]

  45. JPrince Said,

    I found this while looking for cake ideas and had to make it right away. Unfortunately I made it just before the rest of my family left on a trip and not wanting it to dry up at the house I took into work to share. This was several months ago and I still get people making comments and requests for it. I made a regular cake but instead of using food coloring I bought six different flavors/colors of Jello. The colors came out just as wonderful (okay, maybe I added a few drops of food color too). The flavors were not overwhelming and while some did not care for the slight variation of flavor in each color (myself included) others loved it. I have always wanted to make something at a potluck that was so good others would want the recipe. Thanks for making that little dream come true!!! 😉

  46. ADowell Said,

    WAY TO TELL ME HOW TO MAKE A FREAKING RAINBOW CAKE! NOT!

  47. Crisa Said,

    Thanks! I used the same idea for a red, white, blue cake.

  48. Tie-Dye Funky Birthday Cupcakes « Gabes Baby Momma Said,

    […] tie-dye effect is so easy. Since I did not take step-by-step pictures, here is demo on the site I […]

  49. Rainbow Cake: Round Two « Girl Meets Bulgaria Said,

    […] time around I didn’t make Omnomicon’s “diet cake” recipe. Rather, I went the lazy and fattening route and just followed the […]

  50. MJ Said,

    I love it,,, can’t wait to make this… Never knew about the diet soda trick…. Thanks… =)